When comparing Coggle vs Apple Notes, the Slant community recommends Apple Notes for most people. In the question“What is the best cross-platform note-taking app?” Apple Notes is ranked 18th while Coggle is ranked 56th. The most important reason people chose Apple Notes is:
It syncs with iCloud, and surprisingly, also with Gmail and possibly other services too.
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Pros
Pro Supports Markdown (their own variant)
Markdown is a plain text formatting syntax designed so that it can optionally be converted to HTML using a tool by the same name.
Pro Collaborative
Coggle allows inviting friends and colleagues to work collaboratively on notes and diagrams in real-time.
Pro Pretty diagrams
No effort to create beautiful diagrams.
Pro Supports LaTeX
LaTeX is a document preparation system and document markup language. It is the de facto standard for the communication and publication of scientific documents.
Pro Allows easy color-coding of paths
Pro Versioning support
Enter history mode to view all changes to a diagram over time, and make a copy from that point.
Pro Optional Chrome store App
Pro Free
Pro Lots of export options
Exports to PDF, image, plaintext and .mm files.
Pro Sync with other Apple devices via iCloud, other cloud/email services
It syncs with iCloud, and surprisingly, also with Gmail and possibly other services too.
Pro Built-in
It's a default system app, making it easy to find and use since it is already installed.
Pro Rich-text editing
Allows for simple text formatting and making TODO lists with checkboxes.
Pro Attachments
You can add files to notes and then filter notes by attachment types.
Pro Supports sharing
Pro It's fast, and syncing is very dependable
The app launches quickly on both Mac and iOS, it also syncs quickly (in seconds) and very dependably across different Apple devices.
Pro It remains simple to use with a gentle learning curve
Despite the significant new updates in iOS 9 and iOS 10, you can start using Notes immediately, then try/master new features with ease — definitely a gentle learning curve.
Cons
Con Tree relations only; no non-parent links
Coggle's model allows a node to have multiple children, but only one parent, and no other connections of any sort.
Con Unconventional note taking style
Coggle is a mind mapping application, not a traditional text based note storage platform.
Con Cannot export to a format that can be imported again
This makes it obscure and cumbersome to back up your notes as files that could be managed by your backup system. You can export to PDF, but not in bulk; and this isn't the native format that you can easily recover with.
Apple compounds the problem by using some undocumented format for notes. You can, however, back them all up by backing up the files found in ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes